Whole Wheat Einkorn, Wild Blueberry, Earl Grey, Vegan Muffins
Muffins
By some miracle of the Fairy Queen in the woods, we seem to still have power. In fact, Henry, is far weaker than we thought it would be. Still, the forest is dancing around us. Bending and blowing, partnering with rain falling from the grey sky above us.
Not long ago, we met for a book club meeting to watch The Mirror Crack’d by Agatha Christie, when the film proved unobtainable, we instead watched the movie of our current book. The House of Sand and Fog. I made popcorn, and people brought brownies and chips… And I made these muffins.
I thought I would share my recipe though some of it is a long time in the making, so these muffins take some planning. So let me start with that. Lemon Balm honey, is super simple to make. You just take a bunch of fresh lemon balm, cut it up and further mash it into as close to a powder as you can make it into. Open a medium sized jar of honey add in at least a table spoon of the herb. Mix it for a bit. Cap it and put it in a window that gets good sun. Mix it every other day, and when the herbs fall to the bottom of the jar turn the jar upside down and keep up with your mixing regimen. Turn the jar round so that other sides of the jar get sunlight and heat as well. It should stay in the window at least two weeks. Then it will be lemon balm infused honey. It tastes wonderful. I use it in all kinds of stuff. Here I used it in the honey glaze for these muffins.
The recipe is simple. First you want to mix together your dry ingredients.
4 cups whole wheat einkorn flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt (1/2 tea spoon if your butter is salt free.)
1/2 cup maple sugar
3 table spoons (or the equivalent of 3 eggs worth,) of egg substitute powder. (I have issues eating eggs. So I add the dry powder of amount of egg substitute into the dry ingredients. Then I add the 3 eggs worth of water to the wet ingredients which then gets added and mixed with the dry ingredients. You can also be simpler than I am if eating egg is something you can do and just crack and beat 3 eggs and mix them in with the wet ingredients and then mix the wets into the dries.)
The contents of 1 tea bag of Earl Grey tea
Now for the wet ingredients
1 1/3rd cups of butter milk
4 table spoons melted butter (or if you can’t consume dairy try Earth Balance Butter, a vegan option.)
1/4 cup of olive oil
2 table spoons of honey.
The water for the egg sub in the recommended quantity for 3 eggs. Or just 3 eggs.
1/2 cup to 1 cup of wild blueberries
Mix wet ingredients together and dump them into the dry ingredients. Mix well. Once the batter is mixed add in the blue berries and mix again. Preheat the oven to 425. Prepare the muffin tin with paper liners in each of the cups, and fill each cup all the way up. Place muffins into the oven and lower the temperature of the oven to 375. It should take about 25 minutes. Once baked, remove muffins from the oven and allow them to fully cool before you add the lemon balm honey glaze.
Lemon Balm Honey Glaze
2-3 teaspoons of the premade lemon balm honey from out of the jar on the window sill.
2 tea spoons of water
Confectioners sugar in whatever amount you need to make a nice thick glaze you can press onto your muffins with the back of a spoon. (You can see from my pictures I could have used a little more.)
These were absolutely delicious. And they smelled amazing. And I still had plenty of lemon balm honey to use for other things or even just for a cup of tea.
I really love working in Einkorn, but the wet to dry ratio is a bit different than what is typical. What is more, it likes a slightly higher baking temperature than is standard. Einkorn, is high in protein, it is also the first grain humans have been shown to have eaten. It is also high in fiber. It contains gluten, though it’s gluten structure is different than what we typically eat in modern forms of grain flours. Some people who can’t eat gluten do just fine on Einkorn… Some do not. So please be cautious and don’t give this bread to anyone who really shouldn’t have it like someone with a diagnosis from a licensed physician of celiacs. Einkorn, has a flavor that is a bit nutty and it might be stronger than the flavor we are used to. Some love it, others don’t. I love it because it offers so many health benefits and because it has such a long history.
Thank you for reading,
And enjoy the muffins
Amanda of Wildflower Farm
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Wildflower Farm, is a small New England homestead, B&B and AirBnB, in the Baystate. We came out here 7 years ago, when we returned from the better part of 10 years as peripatetic aristotelian nomads, for my husband's post docs. Upon our return, we had a plan. We had a lovely home. Everything was so clear. Then, I got sick. Things I used to eat all the time during our travels elsewhere in the world and even here before I left almost 10 years earlier made me ill. It took a couple trips to the ER and a trip to specialist... It became clear, something had changed in the way food is processed in this country since last I lived here. Some off label things was inevitably going to be my demise.
My husband and I looked around to see the clear path we were on, had exploded in front of us. We decided we had to create a new path for ourselves. We put children on hold. We found a small piece of land with a house we loved in a rural suburb in a right to farm area. I began researching how to do it ourselves. Grow it ourselves, make it ourselves, survive on our own as much as possible. We bought the property, and began plotting a new course. One that didn't involve off label chemicals. Closer to nature, with a lot more DIY, gardens, and animals for the products they provide. We created a life we loved though it hasn't always been easy and has of course come with compromise with each other, and even with ourselves.
Our family thought we had lost our minds. What were we doing leaving the city? We had no idea how hard this would be. They thought we would be back in 6 months. That was over 7 years ago, now. We have been making it work. They were not wrong, it isn't easy. But has anything worth doing ever been easy? And for us, avoiding as much store bought food as possible was simply necessary so I could live given how sick I was getting.
Then Covid hit.... We were lucky to have this place. It has allowed us a lot less need for public use territories which has kept us a lot safer and spared us much of the risk others face daily. This place, has given us a privilege through this of great meaning to us. To be of use in a difficult time. We have been able to help friends family and even strangers in need when things couldn't be found on store shelves. Or money was tight due to not working, rent being due and a child at home, or some other draining situation. We are so very grateful to have been able to not be helpless like so much of society through this miserable time. Our families, got used to it some time ago, us being out here. They made peace with it the day there was no bread and they had to ask me for some. Or when fresh vegies were rotten due to supply chain issues but they could find plenty in my garden.
Wildflower Farm, was a place I dreamed of. One of those sweet pastoral dreams a city dweller grows up knowing will never come true, that became unavoidable when I became ill. I never expected to get to do this. I never thought I had what it takes to make this work. I have learned pacing myself is important, compromise is critical, hard work never ends, burn out is real so breaks are just a necessary evil.
We are not fully self sufficient, but we work hard in that direction as we create a new path through life for ourselves, always reaching to do even more ourselves and to get closer to the ideal we envision. We are however far more self sufficient than many in this world. 7 years in, we continue to learn and grow in this homesteading lifestyle. We welcome comments and advice and ideas and questions.
We welcome visitors from all over to our home with strict covid policies in place. We spend our time learning to live all over again in a more environmental and sustainable way though even there we are far from perfect always learning and growing doing better as we know better.
This little homestead farm is a magical place named for the New England wildflowers that grow all around. A place where a physicist, watches the night sky on clear nights with the aide of mirror and glass, and a woman, works endlessly in the gardens, the kitchen, and a variety of projects to create and to keep a very unique life style running and functioning. Wildflower Farm, has become so much more than simply a piece of land we can grow a few vegetables on. The longer I spend here, the more alive the land seems, the more I learn about it's function and the more meaning it has. My place in the universe and the next steps on our new path become ever more clear.
We welcome you on this journey with us.
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